The present invention relates generally to the field of automotive and other road vehicle signals, and in particular to a new and useful apparatus and method of signaling that a road vehicle is about to slow down or stop, to trailing vehicles on the road.
Everyday, millions of Americans climb into their road vehicles including cars, SUVs, trucks, minivans and the like, and make their way across the highways and byways of this great land. Whether a retired couple embarking on a cross country journey, a college coed enduring a long commute to school, or a busy homemaker driving a few blocks to the neighborhood grocer, automobiles offer consumers a simple way in which to get from one place to another, both safely and easily.
Perhaps the greatest invention of modern history, the introduction of the automobile, is often attributed to Henry Ford in the year 1896, however, the concept and prototype for both an internal combustion and steam engine vehicle, was developed years earlier. Regardless of when the first automobile made its way onto American roads, it is safe to say that this revolutionary product vastly changed the landscape of our country and as quickly as those early production models came off the assembly line, they were snapped up by a populace eager to experience the freedom of mobility that this new form of transportation afforded. Initially there was little concern for safety devices to be incorporated into the design of automobiles.
However, as the number of roads, cars and drivers multiplied, so did the number of automobile accidents, until the point that the Federal Government determined a need existed to require automobile manufacturers to begin designing safer cars. While safety belts, windshield wipers and turn signals were crucial in improving vehicle safety, one of the most important safety features mandated by the government was and still is, vehicle brake lights. Designed to alert motorists behind a vehicle if the driver is slowing or stopping, properly functioning brake lights are a crucial factor in preventing rear end collisions.
While there is little dispute that brake lights are a crucial safety element of any vehicle, there are drawbacks associated with their use. Specifically, standard automobile brake lights operate in a binary fashion, either ‘on’ or ‘off,’ indicating only that the drivers' foot is either on or off the brake pedal. The drivers of vehicles behind any given car have no way of differentiating if the car ahead is slowing down, coming to a stop or ‘riding the brakes,’ without correlation of the visual brake light signal with existing circumstances. The time required to correlate and assess this information may not always be enough to avoid an accident, particularly in emergency or panic braking situations which can, and do, unexpectedly arise. When driving along a road or busy highway, a car which is braking ahead of another car may be interpreted to be stopping when, in fact, that car may only be slowing down. Conversely, if the driver ahead unexpectedly stops, the driver of the vehicle behind that person may have assumed the vehicle ahead was simply slowing down. As a result of this misinterpretation of intent, a collision between the vehicles may occur.
Because standard brake lights do not distinguish between sudden, intense braking, or slow, casual, braking, many accidents take place which may have been avoidable if brake lights conveyed more detailed information about driver intent. Driving is too serious to be basing one's decisions on interpretation of ambiguous signals. Motorists need something more solid, more definite, to be fully cognizant of the braking intent of the driver in the vehicle ahead of them—whether the driver is braking for a gradual stop, a sudden stop, or merely slowing down.
Some solutions to this problem have been proposed. See for example: U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,424 to Sykora; U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,805 to Salsman; U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,098 to Rakow; U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,578 to Gilmore; U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,219 to Perez et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,351,211 to Bussard; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,411,204 and 6,850,156 to Bloomfield et al.; and U.S. Reissued Patent RE39,730 to Brown.
Despite these various approaches to the problem, a need remains for an effective apparatus and method for warning a trailing driver of the braking intentions of a driver in a road vehicle ahead.